10 things: Raptors outclassed by a Wizards team they needed to beat

Here are 10 takeaways from the Toronto Raptors' 119-108 loss to the Washington Wizards.

1. The Raptors played from behind all night as the Wizards comfortably secured the win. It was yet another frustrating watch from a Raptors side that looked completely discombobulated for extended stretches against an opponent nipping at their heels in the play-in race.

Washington executed well, the matchups were tricky in the starting unit and brought in hardworking contributors off the bench, but for the Raptors to look so utterly outclassed by a wholly average opponent is just sad, no matter how you spin it. There has been this prevailing thought all season that the Raptors are better than their record, but at 31-33 and clinging onto the ninth spot by mere fractions, they are exactly what we have seen all season. This is a mediocre team that can't get out of its own way more often than not.

2. The stark difference in this game was in the preparation and approach. The Wizards had a clear idea of how to attack and executed with full force. Washington successfully pressed its advantages in isolation with Kyle Kuzma and Kristaps Porzingis, who were both aggressive in using their size to hunt scoring opportunities, while Bradley Beal drew double teams to put the Raptors in rotation. On the other end, the Wizards successfully kept Pascal Siakam from playing isolation while also neutralizing Scottie Barnes with bigger defenders.

Washington also beat Toronto at its own game with a 16-4 edge in fast-break points, and kept it close in second-chance points at 15-11. Kuzma's sharpness pushed the Wizards to an immediate 10-0 edge which forced the Raptors to immediately regroup, and even in the fourth quarter as the Wizards led by 17, their players were still diving on the floor and jumping over backs for rebounds. Both teams are under the same pressure to make the playoffs, but only one side really played like it.

3. Nick Nurse did his team absolutely no favours in this game. For starters, the rotations were completely out of whack as Nurse played Jakob Poeltl only ten minutes in the first half despite Poeltl being their functional big, a mistake that he rectified in the second half when he used Poeltl for 21 of 24 minutes. Nurse also failed to call timeout when Washington went to zone in the first quarter, which broke Toronto's 18-2 run with a 9-0 run of its own.

For the second unit, Nurse relied on an entirely new combination of Gary Trent Jr., Will Barton, Precious Achiuwa, and Chris Boucher with Fred VanVleet, who were a minus-10 in seven minutes, and it should have been even worse had it not been for the surprising scoring of Boucher. Offensively, Nurse never found a way to get Siakam going, as he had one of his worst games over the past month, while Barnes was hardly heard from after a pair of bully-ball scores when switched on Washington's guards. And to top it off, Nurse couldn't contain his emotions and took a technical foul in the fourth quarter to stop his team's fast break, and then wasted his challenge on a call so hopeless that the review lasted less than 30 seconds.

4. For a team stocked with defenders, the Raptors aren't all that hard to score on. A fundamental principle of Nurse's defence is to pressure the ball at all times, which is sensible on paper. In practice, this looks like overplaying non-shooters, inviting drives to collapse the defence, scrambling out to shooters and jumping at every fake, and a bad habit of reaching when fatigue sets in.

Siakam took two frustration fouls after missed shots in the second half, while VanVleet was so pressed up to the logo against a non-shooter in Delon Wright that his former teammate simply walked to the basket for a layup to push the lead back to 10 with two minutes left. As for the players themselves, their physical advantages become neutralized in the absence of discipline. Kuzma was allowed to gain confidence right away and carried a threat throughout as Barnes and Achiuwa failed to strike the right balance of chasing him off the line while also cutting off his drives. The end result was Washington shot 51 per cent from the field and 47 from deep, to go along with 24 foul attempts.

5. Siakam was far from his usual form with 13 points and it's absolutely imperative for him to bounce back in the rematch. Washington had him bottled up in the paint with Porzingis and Gafford clogging the lane, and when either of them sat, the Wizards smartly used a zone defence to stack multiple bodies in Siakam's path so he couldn't easily get to the paint. The Wizards also lived with Siakam shooting jumpers, and outside of the second quarter where Siakam settled in against Deni Advija, the Wizards sent extra defenders to disrupt his isolation game. With all the extra attention, there has to be opportunities for Siakam to find his teammates. More importantly, Siakam has to maintain his focus and not resort to cheap fouls when his shots aren't dropping.

6. It's hard to overstate just how detrimental Achiuwa was in his 12 minutes. At a minimum, the Raptors need Achiuwa for his defence both on the best opposing wing scorer or as a help defender at centre, and that's where he was most disappointing. He screwed up a switch which resulted in a three for Bradley Beal shortly after checking in, gave up two line drive layups to Kuzma, and was down twice on his pull-up threes even though Kuzma made it abundantly clear that he was shooting any chance he got.

Offensively, Achiuwa's lack of awareness is magnified in zone coverages, and at least once per game he forces his offence in traffic with the same simple move of bulldozing through a crowd. Achiuwa's play has fallen off a cliff since Jakob Poeltl took his starting spot, but the Raptors still badly need Achiuwa for his defence simply because there is nobody else on the bench to fill the role. Thad Young playing at centre in his 16th season is an open invitation to attack the rim.

7. Poeltl was one of two bright spots as he had yet another hyper-efficient outing to go along with stellar interior defence. Poeltl got a lot of easy offence through putbacks and runouts, but it was odd that he wasn't used more in the pick-and-roll with VanVleet until the third quarter. Although Poeltl isn't aggressive with his offence, there is generally good movement when he touches the ball because he is a willing and accurate passer.

The drawback is that the Wizards were able to consistently camp out in the lane with Poeltl and Barnes as non-shooters, but Poeltl at least finds gaps to cut into or to crash the glass effectively. It's also hugely promising that Poeltl made all seven of his free-throw attempts, as he is shooting one-handed at 58 per cent on the year. Defensively, the difference is that the Raptors have shot-blocking and rebounding with Poeltl in the game, and it disappears when he sits. Despite being here less than a month, Poeltl looks more vital than most of the regulars.

8. Nurse needs to get more creative in Gary Trent Jr.'s new role off the bench. Trent Jr. is simply not the type of sixth man where you give him the ball and ask him to take over as he finished with four points on 2-for-7 shooting without an assist. That's not his skillset and asking him to embrace this role in the midst of a playoff race is foolish.

Of his seven shots, two came off pick-and-rolls where Trent Jr. struggled to gain an advantage over a weak defender in Cory Kispert and both resulted in awkward runners that came short. Another shot was an end-of-quarter isolation that resulted in a side-step three against a bigger defender.

Trent Jr. can sometimes get his own offence, but it's not a good strategy for the team as a whole given his lack of passing and inability to get to the rim. He plays best when paired with Siakam, who is great at driving into the paint before reversing it back out to Trent Jr. for the catch-and-shoot three. For his own part, Trent Jr. needs to find other ways to contribute even if he's not scoring. He was a minus-26 and played just two minutes in the fourth.

9. VanVleet's lack of scoring was utterly deflating at times. He was disruptive in the paint and turned a handful of opposing layups into steals going the other way, but he failed at the bigger part of his role which is to create. VanVleet bricked a pair of open threes during Toronto's 0-for-10 start, and in their bid to come back in the fourth, VanVleet had an unfortunate sequence where he hit the underside of the rim on a layup, complained for a foul that wasn't there, then missed two wide-open looks from deep after the Raptors had scratched and clawed for the rebound.

Having finally hit a three in the fourth, VanVleet inexplicably launched a running triple on the next trip down despite three of his teammates having not even crossed halfcourt, which left them without a true chance at the offensive rebound. He finished the night shooting 5-for-17, and the Raptors badly need his perimeter scoring to unclog the lane.

10. Anunoby was great in the difficult assignment of tracking Beal. This is a matchup with history, as Anunoby had this job as a rookie in Toronto's first-round victory against Washington, and has only come to grow more comfortable tracking Beal, who shot 5-for-14 with four turnovers, and only managed one basket against Anunoby on a clever back cut. Offensively, the Raptors empowered Anunoby to drive to the hoop which created good looks outside of his first two tries, and he was able to catch-and-shoot for threes.